Doing a lot of bicycling at Oscar Scherer State Park.

 

My CampSite #71

This is a very popular campground for bicyclists because it is about in the middle of the popular 25 mi long paved Legacy Trail. and the trail along the Venitian Waterway Park. 

Click on these links to see detailed maps of the trails and my rides.

Small Site but even room for my Hammock.

These trails also connect with trails along the beaches in Venice, FL See My Map of a ride through Venice past all the beautiful homes.

There is also a nice trail West of the our campground along Casey Key.

I parked sideways to get privacy in top picture

Along the Venitian Waterfront Park

My longest ride was going north to Sarasota where the Legacy Trail ends but connects to a new bike lane along Ringling Blvd that takes you to Bayfront Park & Marina/Island Park, pictures below.

In the past 4 days I biked all of these trails from my campsite for a total of 100 miles.

Ending my time at EG Simmons Park

The weather has been very unusual this year; it would change every three days from cold mornings in the 40’s, to some rain during the day and then a warmer couple of days in the low 70’s. There were no bugs or sand fleas at all, but it limited some of my activities. But at least it was warmer than back home with snow and temperatures near zero degrees.

I only got to paddle my kayak twice, once around the canoe trail and on a calm day along Tamps Bay over to Bahia Beach.

I had trouble getting a prescription shipped to local Ruskin post office. I rode my bike over there twice and once over to the Apollo Beach PO where it was eventually shipped but lost. I finally got them to reorder it from a Walgreen’s which was in Sun City Center about 10 miles away. I had to take a busy local road with narrow bike lanes until I got to the golf cart lanes in the 50+ community. I was able to shop at an Aldi’s and Walmart near the Walgreens so that was good. I made the ride twice and it drizzled on me both times.

So during my 2 week visit I rode my bike almost 100 mi and paddled about 10 miles. The weather forecast is finally predicting temperatures in the 80’s at my next campground south of Sarasota.

Some of the things Peggy and I always did didn’t happen. We liked to ride our tandem over to the Manatee Viewing Center in Apollo Beach. 

and Peggy liked to get some Grouper at Julies Fish House an outdoor restaurant about 3 mi from camp.

Now at EG Simmons County Park for the next two weeks

After Barry left to head back to Pittsburgh I did 3 more bike rides totaling 40 miles around the Fish Hawk area. I thought I would bride in the opposite direction to see if the little Mexican restaurant (La Villa) was still in business. It was there with a similar menu but with much higher prices than 2 years ago.

There is a housing development (River Hills) here which surrounds a golf course and has some hiking trails in the forest along the Alafia River. I decided to see if I could find them. I couldn't find the start at the southern end since it involved crossing a golf cart path. but that was the right way to go. 

After some bike riding around I found the north end of the trail and started walking it when I saw a sign that said bikes yield to hikers. I went back and decided to ride on the very narrow but hard packed trail with no mud or big roots to jump over. Where it was swampy the trail uses a narrow boardwalk with no railings. It was a good trail but narrow and goes along above the river. The trail is very scenic and well marked. There were other loop trails off the main orange trail but I didn't try them. My 14mi ride was mostly on neighborhood streets and walkways.

On Sunday 1/7 I left at 7am to go to EG Simmons Park, I got there when they opened the gate at 8am and found they had a dozen empty sites to choose from. I like the east campground since the sites are large and the canal is behind the campsite to launch my kayak.

This week had unusual weather for January in FL. It was very changeable going from stormy rainy to cold, to warm weather making it hard to decide what to do. I never took my kayak down since the warm days were also very windy.

A river runs through it when it rains

I was able to get in 3 nice bike rides totaling 29 mi, around the park and around the streets of Ruskin, FL.

Luckly the campsite was sandy since in a hard rain the water runs right past my door but an hour later it is dry.

This weekend I will watch the NFL playoff games and hopefully get to paddle around the canoe trails in the park next week.

Night Visitor

Well marked canoe trail

Peggy viewing St Pete skyline from the park

All my Friends have left

 On Friday Dec 22 we decided to take another bike ride west of Fishhawk Creek to Boyette Springs and Shadow Run Parks. I have done this ride many times with Peggy so I lead Barry & Kimberly to the Boyette Springs Park with no problems but then my memory of the route got a little fuzzy, I was trying to find the path shown by the dashed red line through the Bell Creek Nature Preserve with all of its hiking trails. First I got a little lost trying to find the entrance which is a little gate off of Brughfield St. Then when we found it instead of the short sandy trail shown by the dashed red line to Donneymoor Dr, I rode all around on the blue trails shown on the map below. Barry found the right way while I rode around in circles. We eventually got to our lunch spot on Lake Grady. It turned out to be a nice 20 mile bike ride from camp.

On Saturday we decided to do the Alafia (Al-a–fee-ah) River again from Alderman Ford to our camp, the flow had dropped from 315 cfs to 140 cfs but there was still enough water for a nice paddle. Barry decided to bike the shuttle, about a 7 mi bike ride.

 I passed by this little alligator on the log and didn’t even see him, Barry took his picture after I passed by. The 9 mile paddle took about 3-1/2 hrs.

 Barry dropped Kimberly off at a friend’s house on Saturday night for a visit but then on Tuesday she flew to Nashville to help a community devastated by a tornado last month, she won’t rejoin our trip.

On Sunday and again on Christmas we watched the NFL football games on TV.

By Wednesday we decided we needed to paddle again, so we did the Lower Alafia again which had dropped from 215 to 120 cfs. I was pleased that there was still enough water that we made it over the shallow shoals without touching a rock.

Barry again did a 8 mi bike shuttle.

We saw the biggest alligator yet on this section.

 We paddled about 7 miles to reach the Brandon Boat Ramp. If you liked flatwater you could paddle another 9 miles and reach Tampa Bay. Of course there would be a lot of motorboat traffic.

The light rain started late Tuesday night and continued to about 10 am on Wednesday. Barry decided maybe this was a good time to start driving north.  If the traffic was not too bad he might paddle the Ichetucknee River near Lake City and then stay overnight at Ocean Pond campground. However there was a lot of slow traffic near Ocala so he got off on US301 and decided to start heading further north which could possibly get him home to Pittsburgh by Friday night.

Peggy loved these rivers and was always ready to paddle

Lithia Springs near Tampa

 

After staying overnight with my friend's Paul & Helen, I planned to shop and stay overnight at a Lowes near the campground so I could get to campground early on Sunday morning and get a campsite when the weekend campers leave. This campground does not take reservations. 

When I got near Tampa the forecasted heavy rain started, I thought that will chase the weekend campers away, so I decided to go directly to the camp at about 11 AM Saturday. I got campsite #50 near the river take-out beach trail.

Barry & Kimberly arrived on Sunday afternoon and we paddled the Upper Alafia River on Monday at a flow of 315 CFS. Which was great since it had been very low the past two weeks.

This is another favorite campground I havestayed here 15 different times over the past 24 years. Lithia Springs County Park has a large spring which is their swimming area. The water flows into the Alafia River. 

There are two sections we paddle. I like the upstream section from Alderman Ford to the campground which is a 9 mile paddle with a good current and little sandstone rapids. The difficulty for beginners is not the rapids but there are dozens of fallen trees to duck under, or paddle around.  Turtles, large birds and alligators are easy to see.

We had our campground host Chris drive Barry's van and our three kayaks to the put-in and then he dropped the van back at our campsite. 

Here is a picture of Chris last year with my kayak. He used to take Peggy & me along with our canoe with his jeep. I really appreciate all the help he has given me.

The lower section starts from the campground and is almost 7 mi to the Brandon Boat Ramp. No fallen trees, just limestone riffles. The last 3 mi has some big houses and some small motor boats, so I don't like it as well as the upper, but if the river level is low it is still paddleable.

The river level was dropping fast; we ran the upper at the peak flow of 315cfs on Monday and decided to paddle the lower on Wednesday which already had dropped to 215 cfs. The lowest I ever run the lower was 140 cfs. 

Barry dropped his car at the boat ramp take-out and peddled his bike back to camp, only an 8 mi ride on bike trails and neighborhood streets.

On Tuesday we took a 19 mi bike ride through all the concrete trails at Fish Hawk Ranch. As usual even though there are thousands of homes very few residents use these beautiful trails in their natural areas.

The weather all week was cool, 50 in morning and 65 for highs but finally on Thusday it is getting sunny and warmer.

 

Peggy checking out the FL Sandhill Cranes on the Fish Hawk trails.

On Thursday I decided to rest and work on my blog while Kimberly left early for a long bike ride and Barry left after lunch for a short bike ride.

On Friday we wll all take another long ride through the trails in Fish Hawk Ranch.

The Alafia River should still be high enough on Saturday for another upper run. The temperature are forecast to warm into the mid-seventies with sunny skies.